


Electric

by icaruslaughed



Series: Suptober20 [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angels, Angst, The Empty (Supernatural), i have an unhealthy obsession with 15x18 specs, partially analysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26926339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icaruslaughed/pseuds/icaruslaughed
Summary: say 9 of suptober20
Series: Suptober20 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955047
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Electric

**Author's Note:**

> I won't lie, I have no clue what happened here so just... bear with me. It's mostly analysis and going into detail about my theories of how Grace and vessels and angel's true forms work.

There has always been something different about Castiel. Sure, he’s an angel and everything, but he’s spent so much time on earth, you’d think that would have changed him, but no. Not even Falling could do that. It was less obvious, then, but maybe that’s what made it worse.

All angels possess humans, everyone knows that. They have to because otherwise their true forms will a) kill everything in sight, and b) well, a) pretty much sums it all up. So when they possess a vessel, their true form condenses into a sort of metaphysical pouch that sort of exists outside the laws of space. That’s why bloodlines are crucial to angels, because only those who descend from the first vessels are born with the pouch, and without the pouch, well, the vessel explodes. 

It’s not a perfect fit, though. Even when working outside humanity’s laws of time and space, some things simply don’t fit. Castiel told him, once, that Grace does not just give angels strength and help heal wounds. It also makes slight adjustments to the correlation between an angel and its human vessel. Grace covers things such as simply knowing  _ how _ to speak, a skill that human babies take months to develop. It covers fine motor skills, translating movement and the laws of combat as stated in the laws of the fourth dimension to those written in the language of the third. But most importantly, it does its best to conceal the little bit of angel that spills from the pouch, to help the angel seem more human.

It’s rather ironic, seeing as it really has quite the opposite effect. In theory--no one’s ever really been able to prove that it does more harm than good, but it  _ must _ , considering some of the outcomes. Anna Fell, and when she did, she kept her wings, but lost her Grace, leaving her true form dormant: curled up so tight within her human body that it somehow managed to fit within the pouch in its entirety. But when the angels walked the earth once again, they awakened it. It uncoiled itself just enough to drive her insane without Grace to keep it stable, but when her Grace  _ was _ returned to her… It allowed her true form to slip out, stretch its wings, reacquaint itself with this plane of existence. But it brought out an unearthly air about her, vaguely unsettling in a way no one could ever be able to put their finger on.

Uriel, an angel his whole life, never had the opportunity to feel, only to lose that ability for the sake of power. He only ever  _ had _ power as Heaven’s Specialist. Anyone around him could feel that power, simply by looking into his eyes. Empty eyes. Most of the time, he wore no human expression but the neutral one set as his vessel’s default. Even when he smiled, it was evident that he only did it because the vessel told him to, slightly to the left of a human smile, obvious in how mechanical it was (see also: Zachariah). 

Michael is more obvious about his inhuman nature. Even during the first apocalypse, he remained dead silent, moving only when necessary, talking when necessary. It was unnerving. But then again, he served a different purpose then, didn’t he? He needn’t worry about blending with the humans as other angels did because he may as well have been God. Or, at least, that was his logic. He understands, now, that it’s not true, but he still doesn’t bother to make his existence more bearable. Or maybe he can’t. Archangels are the biggest and most powerful class of angel, after all.

But Castiel. Cas, Cas, Cas. If Michael was unnerving, then Castiel was downright terrifying. The other angels didn’t bother to try and hide their divinity, and maybe that’s what set them apart. Castiel  _ did _ ; he developed real mannerisms and facial expressions, though only God knows where he learned them. But despite his attempts to be “normal”--or maybe because of them--he strayed far from it. When he first stood before the Righteous Man in that barn in Pontiac, Illinois, he proved the storm outside--the storm  _ he _ created--could never compare to the power he held within.

No matter how well he learned human expressions, phrases, language, behaviors, he would never be one. The air around him shook at his very presence. It was almost electric. And that’s why the Personal Space rule had to be put into place: because that touch truly was lightning in a bottle. Incredibly addicting.

When he Fell, the last barrier between Cas and Earth fell too. With no more Grace to normalize his existence, a constant air of unease surrounded him, spreading like disease to those around him. It turned them away from him faster than the flap of an angel’s wings. Humans are rather intuitive creatures, and they can tell on principle when something is very Not Right, despite nothing triggering any of their senses. Cas knew that, has always known that, and he did his best to not trigger that immediate fight or flight response. But even conscious thought cannot replace angelic Grace. It got to the point that the return of Castiel’s Grace was a relief for more reasons than its usefulness.

The electricity returned with his Grace, and this time it was irresistible. Five years after Castiel powered up once again, a promise hung over his shoulders. An unspoken one, a deal he tried many times to forget as he found it unlikely his fellow signatory would be able to come collect for millennia. But the unrelenting presence of the spark in the air around Cas grew stronger and stronger until the deal had to be cashed in on. 

He was always different, up until the moment he died. Everyone likes to pretend he went quick and quiet, but the electricity within him would never allow that. When the Empty came for him, it screamed. In its wake it left a storm, same as the one it created the first time Castiel walked the earth since Hell, but tainted with the unmistakable grief that comes with death. Blue-white lightning found itself tinged black, the earth below it stained with the salty tears of the man who fell in love with a storm.


End file.
